‘Star Wars: Episode 8’ Rumor: Benicio Del Toro’s Character Is From ‘Bloodline’ Novel?

The mystery of the identity of the new character in Star Wars: Episode 8 – The Last Jedi played by Benicio Del Toro may have finally been solved.

Hardworking Star Wars watcher and YouTuber Mike Zeroh speculates that the top-secret character is someone from the Star Wars novel titled Bloodline written by Claudia Gray.

Released early this year, the book, which is canon, is set a few years prior to the events of Star Wars: Episode 7 – The Force Awakens and sets up birth of the Resistance.

The character in question is a Centrist Senator by the name Ransolm Casterfo. There are a lot of details about him that suggest he could be Del Toro’s counterpart in Star Wars: Episode 8.

For the uninitiated, Star Wars: Bloodline follows the story of the efforts of Leia, who, in that book, serves as one of the Senators of the New Republic, to find lasting peace and democracy after the defeat of the Empire.

Such attempts were thwarted by vicious infighting between the Senate, which was ultimately divided into two camps—the Populists, who believe that each planet should keep hold of their authority, and the Centrists, who are convinced a galactic government and powerful military are what the galaxy needs.

In this Star Wars novel, Leia becomes acquainted with Casterfo, who she saw as trustworthy and friendly despite their different views towards the Empire. He is one of the Centrist Senators she came to trust and eventually struck a friendship with.

However, Casterfo ends up being tricked by one Lady Carise Sindian to betray Leia later in the novel by revealing to him that she has been keeping the fact that she is the daughter of Darth Vader, who tormented Casterfo as a child.

This tainted Leia’s political reputation and of course their friendship. He ultimately regretted his actions and in the end, Casterfo finds himself behind bars and was sentenced to death after being framed by Carise herself for the Napkin bombing in the Star Wars novel.

His ultimate fate was not revealed, but a death sentence meant he was a surefire goner. However, when it comes to the Star Wars universe, a character’s demise is not final until a dead body turns up, which means there is a chance he could still be alive and could be of service in The Last Jedi.

Zeroh pointed out the parallels of Casterfo and Del Toro’s Star Wars: Episode 8 – The Last Jedi character, who is only codenamed DJ also known as the man in black.

One of the things discovered about DJ in The Last Jedi is that he is in prison in Canto Bight and Finn (John Boyega) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) will be tasked to get him.

Zeroh believes that it will be General Leia who puts them up to it seeing that he still trusts the guy (assuming DJ and Casterfo are one and the same) and would be of help in taking on the First Order in Star Wars: Episode 8.

The Star Wars watcher also pointed out that like what was discovered about DJ, Casterfo also owns a fancy ship in Bloodline. Another interesting piece of information is that Star Wars: Episode 8 director Rian Johnson himself helped with the development of the novel making it possible that he may have pulled some material from the book to use in The Last Jedi.

However, nothing is confirmed yet at the moment. Del Toro’s character will go nameless in the entire film and Disney is not planning to reveal anything, which has fans thinking that he might be someone that is already well established in the Star Wars universe.

Many still believe that he is a “Dark Jedi” or that he could be Ezra Bridger from Star Wars Rebels, which would explain the intense secrecy around the character.

For now, however, fans will just have to wait for Star Wars: Episode 8 – The Last Jedi to hit the theaters December 15 to learn more.

[Featured Image by John Phillips/Getty Images]